Guv lists surplus priorities

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. announced his wish list Wednesday for spending the state's growing surplus — but tax cuts weren't among his top priorities.

Boosting teacher salaries again in the 2008 Legislature was the governor's first choice for using some of what could reach as much as $260 million by end of the budget year on June 30, he said during a taping of his monthly press conference on KUED Channel 7.

Utah teachers still earn some $5,000 less than their counterparts in the region, Huntsman said, despite a significant salary boost approved by lawmakers last session that included a one-time bonus.

That's helped lead to some 400 open teaching spots, he said. "Why is that the case? I would argue that's the case because we are still discounting our teachers in terms of compensation," Huntsman said.

Second on his list was closing the gap on the number of Utahns without health insurance. Some 300,000 Utahns are currently uninsured, 11.9 percent of the population. That figure includes nearly 90,000 children.

The governor said he'd like to see a state-mandated policy that would provide at least catastrophic coverage for all Utahns, although he did not know what that would end up costing taxpayers.

The third place where the surplus should be used, Huntsman said, is to improve Utah's air quality. "The air is awful in the metropolitan areas," the governor said, a situation that he said should "outrage" parents. "We really need to clean up our act."

Huntsman was recently elected vice-chairman of the Western Governors' Association and said finding new sources of clean energy will be a priority of the Colorado-based organization. He is in line to become its chairman next year.

The governor did not bring up tax cuts when asked about the surplus, but said if there is money left after addressing what he sees as more pressing needs, he would support removing the rest of the sales tax off food.

Over the past two years, lawmakers have reduced the state's share of the food tax, last year by $40 million. Starting Jan. 1, 2008, Utahns will pay a statewide uniform sales tax rate of 3 percent on food.

Tax cuts, however, are likely to be a bigger priority for lawmakers in 2008, an election year. Plus, there has long been opposition to removing the sales tax from food by lawmakers, who have gone along with cuts only when income taxes were reduced as well.

Huntsman, who campaigned on removing the sales tax from food and is up for reelection next year, said that it is a difficult sell with lawmakers but that it is a tax cut that "has a positive effect on everyone."

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